aligned w/ Protestants outside of France during 30 Years' War (persecuted them at home)

created a dominant centralized state; secured royal power and weakened noble power; nobles began to resent crown's increase of power

Reason of State: well-being and stability of the state (gov.) is most important; all gov. action should be directed to this end; includes actions considered illegal/immoral under ordinary circumstances; Realpolitik or Machiavellian

secured French monarchy against internal and external rivals

growth of modern French state amounts to transfer of power from nobility of crown

Both Cardinals' actions spark the Fronde (1649-1652); series of noble rebellions against the increasing power of the monarchy; convinces Louis that his rule must include the support of the nobles

Louis XIV "The Sun King" (1638-1715)

assumes total control of gov. in 1661; appoints no chief minister; wants absolute power; wants nobles to like him (they hated chief ministers)

marries Marie Theresa of Spain

Coutume: legal customs

shapes established institutions to his will

gov. advisors/ministers=mix of nobles and intellectuals w/o noble blood old aristocratic army commanders are replaced by new obedient professional offers with no royal blood

meets w/ regional judicial bodies calledparlements before making laws; represented opposition to king

Parlements passed laws that applied to their jurisdictions; they could also appeal national laws that were put in place by the king

Parlement of Paris: notorious for refusing legislation in which they disagreed

Edict of 1673: requires parlements to register lawsbefore they appeal them; deprived parlements of the ability to remonstrate (complain); most other parlements resented the Parlement of Paris' power and supported Louis' edict; weakened nobles and enemies of Louis XIV

all of France feels Louis' rule, but none more than the nobility

Louis XIV "The Sun King" (1638-1715)
Propaganda

Versailles: palace built (1676-1708) to show Louis' financial supremacy over French nobles

meticulously designed to show grandeur and glory of the Sun King

court life organized around daily routine

example of Baroque architecture

Louis XIV "The Sun King" (1638-1715)
Divine Right

Jacques Benigne Bossuet: Louis' son's tutor; defended "divine right of kings"; kings=popes (judged only by God); not judged by people or nobles; "L'Etat c'est moi" ("I am the state")-Louis XIV

Lettres de cachet: letters enclosed with royal seal; allowed Louis to send enemies to prison w/o a trial; allows him to push national laws past apealing parlements; becomes symbol of abuses of Ancien Regime monarchies

Mercantilism: economic growth in one state requires a decline in others; economics, like diplomacy,. is a war carried on by peaceful means; nations are seeaking a "favorable balance of trade" (export>import)

wealth measured by amount of precious metals in a country's possession (build up France's gold and silver supply)

hoped that France would become self-sufficient by manufacturing everything and not relying on imports; high tarifs on foreign goods (mainly Dutch and English)

founded East and West India trading companies

Jean Baptiste Colbert (2)

attempted to eliminate nobility's economic power; unable to do so (ineffective taxation system)

War at Home (3)
Edict of Fontainbleau/Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)

Madame de Maintenon: mistress and second "wife" of Louis XIV; staunch Catholic; convinced Louis to go after Huguenots; they were previously protected by Colbert (they helped France financially); after Colbert dies, he pursues them more aggressively; Louis becomes "New Constantine"

Louis revokes the edict of Nantes and forbids Huguenots to practice their faith; demolishes Protestant churches and schools; ministers had 15 days to leave France or become imprisoned; Protestant children were kidnapped and baptized by Catholic priests

about 200,000 Protestants leave France for England, the Dutch Republic, and Brandenburg-Prussia

emigres: French Protestants forced to leave; took skills to new countries; economically helping new countries and hurting France

Protestants across Europe consider Louis XIV a fanatic who must be opposed

Louis XIV and the Bourbon family are the most powerful people in Europe

Grand Alliance: Great Britain, Dutch Republic, major German city states; formed to preserve the balance of power against France and Spain

Treaty of Utrecht: Philip can be king of Spain; neither he nor his successors can ever occupy the French throne; split of Spanish Bourbons and French Bourbons; Bourbon family is no longer the most powerful

Treaty of Rastatt: ended hostilities b/w France and Austria from the War of the Spanish Succession; Louis had to return conquered lands (Spanish Netherlands, Italy, Spain); most of it goes to Austria

Both the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession severely weaken France

France after Louis XIV's Death (1)

Louis dies in 1715

succeeded by his great-grandson who becomes Louis XV

Philippe Duke of Orleans (1715-1723): regent for Louis XV; handed financial management over to John Law (Englishman); renewed authority of the parlements; French nobility given power in the government again

John Law: propsed printing paper notes as a meanst to alleviate France's debt; creation of National Bank; Mississippi Bubble: increase in paper-money not backed by enough silver and gold leads to financial problems (inflation)

Bubble: term in economics that is applied to an unusually rapid increase in stock prices/value of some other asset such as real estate

France after Louis XIV's Death (2)
Cardinal Fleury (1726-1743)

chief minister of Louis XV

enables fiscal reforms; allow French finances to recover from costly wars of Louis XIV and extravagances of Philippe

cannot prevent France from entering the world-wide conflict (War of Austrian Succession) in the 1740s

French Conclusion

From 1589 to the early 1640s, King Henry IV and Louis XIII (along with their chief ministers the Duke of Sully and Cardinal Richelieu) established foundations of French absolute monarcy

Cardinal Mazarin's success (mid 17th century) in suppressing Fronde marked end of nobility's efforts to reassert its independence from royal authority, although nobles retained some of their traditional privileges

King Louis XIV enjoyed virtually unchallenged authority

revocation of the Edic of Nantes=blunder

wars=extremely expensive

when Louis XIV died in 1715, he left a legacy of financial problems for his successors to deal with